There’s This Band Called 5 Seconds Of Summer And It’s Totally For Us 20-Somethings
There’s a new band on the block called 5 Seconds of Summer. I know it may look like they’re a boy band made up of 17-year olds… They are. But they’re not your everyday swoon-worthy One Direction hair models. If you’re in your twenties, like me, then you may be trying to avoid liking this band. You may think to yourself:
You know what, I’m getting too old for this shit. I can’t be sitting around the workplace listening to a tweeny-bopper boy-band anymore. I have to stop pretending I love Justin Bieber in a purely ironic way. My love for him is real and true.
I’ve gone through this too, but I’m a patriot and a martyr for my generation, which is why I’m here to tell all you twenty-somethings who are wondering if you’re too old to listen to 5 Seconds Of Summer that it’s OK! You CAN like them without being called a pedophile! Here’s why:
THE POP-PUNK REVIVAL: It’s real, it’s here, and it’s happening live in real time.
5 Seconds of Summer are bravely going (is it brave?) where no man (boy) has gone before (they have, in 2003). Us twenty-somethings grew up in an era where middle school/high school angst was defined by pop-punk “emo music.” Short for “emotional,” but realistically translated as “trendy,” emo music was the gold standard of the pubescent coming-of-age story. What did emo music sound like, you ask? Like pop-punk guitars with Warped Tour stickers, a zest of quirkiness, and a dash of “I cried when I wrote this.” Voila: Pop-punk.
Why You Want to Listen:
While it was horrible to go through, pop-punk was our shoulder to cry on when our first love told us he was gay. Pop-punk was there for us when black eyeliner and black nail-polish were cool for both genders. Pop-punk was there when we lied about trying pot for the first time, got sent to the hospital for chugging watermelon-flavored Smirnoff, and made out with braces on. And yes, pop-punk was there for us when we got caught looking at porn with our “bad friend” Jessica Palowski. And now, pop-punk is making a comeback, and we are more emotionally stable than ever to deal with its second coming.
What You Want to Listen to:
Just listen to “18” and tell me it doesn’t throw you back to “Stacy’s Mom”. Listen to “Beside You” and die over how much you feel those teenage feels and tingles in your danger zone. And listen to “Amnesia” and accidentally cry in your car alone even though you don’t have a significant other to feel that way about. Rock out to “Don’t Stop” and “Mrs. All American.” For the love of god, put on your studded converse high-tops and black jelly bracelets and score a beer from your dad’s fridge to “Good Girls” and “Kiss Me Kiss Me.”
Where to Listen:
Although they should sell it in the form of burned CDs with black sharpie scribbles drawn by your first crush who skateboards and was like, totally edgy… It’s on Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play (whatever the fuck that is).
Go forth, reminisce, and do NOT feel creepy about liking a band of teenage boys, because remember: they’re not a boy band, they’re a band-band. They’re your favorite headliner at Bamboozle 2005, they’re the first band you crowd-surfed to, and they’re your sexual awakening. They’re real instruments, simple, heartfelt lyrics, catchy guitar riffs, impeccably melodic harmonized vocals, and they’re an epic air-drum solo alone in my car…OK I AM LISTENING TO THEM IN MY CAR.
So look back and regret everything you were doing the first time you were into pop-punk, twenty-somethings, but let this nostalgia ring true throughout your whole body. It’s pure, it’s “emotional,” and it reminds us of the scariest and most hormonally aggressive times of our lives. 5 Seconds of Summer’s self-titled album is there for you to cry to about not being 17 anymore and having a job at a real estate company that you don’t fucking care about. It’s time to put your black band t-shirts back on, twenty-somethings. Stand on your desk, kick that nerdy IT guy in the back and let your words ring throughout the cubicles: “I LOVE 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER!”